Veil Nebula

June 6 2015

The Western Veil (also known as Caldwell 34)

Western Veil Nebula

Nikon D610 +Skywatcher ED80 + Orion Starshoot Autoguider
Skywatcher EQ-3 Synscan

5 mins x 7 @ iso 800 with Baader UHC-S.

Stacked in DSS + Photoshop

Here is another celestial object taken from my light polluted backyard. The Veil Nebula is a supernova remnant which occurred thousands of years ago. This nebula is so large that it is measured at six times the diameter of the full moon, but it is very diffuse. What is pictured here is just the western veil or called the Witches Broom which is less than a quarter of the size of the whole nebula. The veil is part of the Cygnus loop within the plane of the Milky Way. The bright star is called 52 Cyg.

I had a hard time processing this image partly because the nebula is so faint that even at 5 mins exposure i can  hardly see it and i suspect my ISO is too low at 800. The UHC filter however helped a lot reducing the skyglow which makes the image look orange.

Stretching the image introduced a lot of noise and artifacts but i was able to bring out the green color of Oxygen III emission which this nebula is known for. Making more adjustments on the midtone levels will bring out some more wispy details but the image will be degraded too much. I will definitely try to capture this object again on the next chance that will come.